A Duel with Destiny: The Power of Time
by 4Dragons
Summary: Time leads to change, and change is loss. A loss of what once was. One thing, however, does not change and never will: A desire for self improvement.
1. Back in Black: Original

**A Duel with Destiny: The Power of Time**

 **If you don't know my other fanfiction 'The Legend of Spyro: A Duel with Destiny' and you've come here hoping to read a story, then perhaps you should look elsewhere.  
** **A click on my username, a scroll down my profile page, and another quick click in the 'My Stories' section will get you to this story as it was originally meant to be read. I encourage you to flick across to that story, if you're here for the plot, romance, action and excitement of a Spyro fanfiction. (and a pretty good story it is, if I do say so myself)**

 **If you're here because you've read and enjoyed Destiny already, then I hope that you'll enjoy this spinoff just as much.**

* * *

 _The sun was setting over the city, its dying light tainted the low clouds a deep bloody red. A dragon stood upon a rooftop garden, facing the west, still as a stone statue. The sun faded, night rose, the stars were hidden by deep black clouds._

 _A storm was brewing. Rain lashed the city, lightning split the sky, at each flash the dragon was revealed, still standing in its place. A few late dragons arrived at the city that night, something momentous was meant to happen tomorrow. A freezing hour passed, the dragon did not move, a second hour went by, then more followed until at last midnight approached. The storm tore itself into oblivion and silence reigned. Midnight was a fine time for dark business, but the dragon on the rooftop still let the time go by._

 _At last in the third hour of the morning a shadowy figure descended from the roof and followed the grand spiral staircase down. Four dragons took the stairs in the minutes after three AM but no meeting took place and no alarm was raised. The dragon continued its silent journey._

 _A traitor waited at the foot of the stairs, after a deep bow they led the dragon into the depths of the city. Two guards on either side of a door lay still and silent, dead or unconscious the dragon neither knew nor cared. Down to the vaults of the city, the traitor stood to guard the door, like the original guards had, albeit in a more successful fashion. Chests locked by powerful magic ground open as the dragon passed. The contents of two of these chests would not be found in the morning. A crystal trapped in a prison of black iron, and a pair of snake charms, such as might be put around the necks of a pair of young dragons…_

 _The traitor looked into the vault after several quiet minutes had passed, it was empty. They entered the room and looked over the chests. As they carefully took the item the dragon had left behind they were struck with a disturbing feeling, perhaps the room was not as empty as it appeared. With a shiver of fear the traitor returned to their own sleeping chamber, sleep did come, but they were tormented by nightmares until dawn._

* * *

 **Earlier that day:**

Cynder the black dragon, former terror of the skies, twisted under the monster's furious attack. With the ease of long practice she danced behind it and struck out with her long bladed tail. She should have cut skin, and the elemental poison in her strike should have ended the fight then, but that wasn't going to happen. This was an elite troll and it wore a mask of earthy green, that mask had saved it when the creature known as The Destroyer had destroyed the world. The world hadn't quite been properly destroyed, it hadn't even been destroyed very well, but that's what had happened: almost three years ago, the world was destroyed.

Cynder's wings spread and she skipped gracefully over the troll's back, her agility made her untouchable. The troll seemed untouchable too, only earth elemental attacks would knock that mask off.

"Spyro!" Cynder cried, but no purple dragon came to her aid.

She had lost him.

Cynder felt her eyes fill with tears and blinked them back angrily; she shouldn't have been crying, it wasn't like Spyro was even _dead._ She just hadn't been able to keep him. That hurt her feelings and her pride more than Cynder would ever willingly admit. Cynder nearly paid for her lack of attention, the troll's gnarled fist missed her by inches. Cynder rose and hovered above the beast like a hawk, her manipulation of the wind made the action seem weightless and effortless. She glanced around looking for a way to win her battle. A nearby cliff held possibilities, as she taunted the monster over to the cliff, antagonizing it with gusts of wind and Siren Screams, Cynder couldn't help but think of the past.

The three months that followed the defeat of the purple dragon Malefor and the "end" of the world had been the best of Cynder's not very nice life. She and Spyro, connected by a chain of magic and their shared love, exploring the new world, playing and celebrating, fighting the hapless remnants of the evil dragon's army and sleeping together under the stars.

Cynder could have lived like that forever.

* * *

It was Spyro's sense of duty that drew them back to the Dragon Temple, where they had been just eggs, they had found it a ruin, destroyed in war and abandoned. Spyro had been saddened by its loss. The two of them had travelled, at Spyro's request, to the city of Warfang, which had been damaged but was not irreparable. Spyro's kind heart, Cynder loved him for it, but after three short months of happiness it was that which brought her back to the whispers, mutterings and cold disapproval that haunted Cynder in a way that Malefor's strongest magic never had.

Cynder thought she feared nothing, anyone who had seen her fight would agree, seeing her tearing into entire legions of murderous foes with Spyro by her side. Cynder had no fear of pain or battle, that was true, but what Cynder hadn't known was that she feared her fellow dragons.

She was beautiful, brave, clever and far more powerful, but Cynder was completely helpless against this new enemy. Cynder had been sure the magical chain that bound Spyro and her together would give her unshakable claim to Spyro's time and affection, but it took only days for some audacious dragon to turn that against her.

"Cynder is still evil; the Terror of the Skies is still a wicked demon dragon and puppet to Malefor. Only heroic Spyro is strong enough to restrain her, he keeps her as a slave and a paramour; she serves him like a pet. You don't believe me? Then tell me: Why are they chained together?"

Rumours were more powerful than even Cynder's fear magic, no amount of logical reasoning or outright denial from her or Spyro could wash away the taint this cast on their new relationship. Cynder knew that chain had to be removed, it had to be.

Spyro accepted this for her sake and after over a month of torturous whispering the magic was broken and the snake bands of the chain hidden in the vaults of Warfang. To Cynder's relief this did stop the rumours, but now that it was possible for her and Spyro to be apart from each other every dragon that had ever disapproved of her made certain they saw as little of each other as possible. Eventually Cynder had given up, she had run away, perhaps she would simply be a pariah, outcast, a shadow on the edge of the new world, forever alone. Perhaps that would be easier.

Travelling and fighting and sleeping under the stars, it just wasn't the same without Spyro, she dealt with it, moved on, but every now and then something would cruelly remind her of the life she had given up, Spyro.

How dare this troll wear an earthen mask? How dare it remind her of the dragon she cared for most in this world? Cynder dived from on high; black smoky flames engulfed the beast. Cynder slashed and kicked, determined to make the beast hurt as much as she had, it had no effect. Cynder's anger gave her strength; three years of growth had seen her grow to just under the size of a full grown dragon and develop into a beautiful young dragon, not unlike the image Malefor had created for her when she was the terror of the skies, feared the world over for her power. And she _was_ powerful _._ Cynder hooked her claws around the troll and screamed in anger and then she threw the both of them over the cliff.

Cynder's wings unfurled and she watched coldly as the troll plunged to the ground. The mask went flying from its monstrous face; clearly the impact with the earth below its feet was sufficient damage from the right source. Now it could be harmed. The troll was slowly getting up but that was fine as Cynder wasn't done yet.

The unfortunate elite enemy looked up just in time to see the entire cliff land on its head. Cynder relaxed as she floated down from on high, breathing deeply. Cynder landed on the pile of rubble in a spectacularly stylish manner, looking good was habit to her now.

Cynder made sure to look her best even when there was nobody around, except there was someone; a shadow flew overhead, a dragon. Cynder looked up, the dragon was silver and slim with delicate wings, a female, Cynder remained silent until she saw the choker around the new dragon's neck, it was a stylish piece of jewellery like the one Cynder had once worn. Now Cynder called a greeting. The dragoness landed before her.

"Hello Imperia." Cynder smiled.

Imperia's name did not suit her, she was not imperious at all, she was one of the very few dragons who had ever been truly kind to Cynder, strangely Volteer was the other.

Imperia was uniquely famous for her infamous non-uniqueness, Imperia had an identical twin sister Altia. Both were wind dragons and so alike that Imperia had taken to wearing her choker so that dragons could tell them apart. Cynder didn't usually need to see the choker, as Altia detested Cynder almost as much as Imperia cared for her, and one always looked kind while the other appeared to be permanently sucking on a lemon.

Cynder viewed Imperia as both a teacher in the extraordinary art of wind magic and as the mother figure the younger dragoness had never known or expected.

The two dragons stayed in contact, every two weeks they met at the ruined Dragon Temple, where they would spend a day together, taking a class, playing or just talking. Imperia had kept Cynder sane during her solitude.

Imperia was knowledgeable, graceful and seductive. She was also an excellent teacher, although according to her Cynder was just an excellent pupil. Imperia was also, Cynder was aware, a master at manipulating others. When Imperia wanted something she always got it.

"I want you to come back to Warfang." Imperia said.

Cynder didn't dismiss this entirely out of hand, but she wasn't impressed.

"Why?"

"Because being alone like this isn't good for you, Cynder."

"You should have brought this up two years ago, I can't just go crawling back now! If it was bad before, now it's all just going to be even worse. I won't beg to these dragons, I refuse to."

"I know, but if you can't bring yourself to return now then I'll bet that you never will, besides-" Imperia's mood brightened and she smiled mysteriously. "There's nothing better for fixing estrangement issues than a disaster."

"Estrangement issues?"

"An apt description I'd say."

"Estrangement issues. Hmm, fine, but how can a disaster fix this?"

"It's a classical scenario: A group of dragons, who don't like each other, such as a dysfunctional family, go on holiday, to a theme park maybe. While they're there a disaster happens, for example dinosaurs might rampage around and try to kill everyone."

"What's a dinosaur?"

"It's like a wingless dragon, they have no magic either, but they come in lots of different shapes and sizes."

"That doesn't sound very dangerous."

"That's beside the point. Anyway, dinosaurs attack, they eat "that guy", the one that nobody likes, everyone bands together to survive, together they solve the problem, escape the dinosaurs, have a heartwarming reunion scene and live happily ever after."

"I could take on a wingless dragon without magic any day. Is that what's happening, are these dinosaur things attacking Warfang?"

"What? No, they all died a really long time ago."

"Serves them right, what sort of dragon can't fly? It's hardly a dragon at all, more like a troll."

Cynder glanced down at the rubble beneath her feet.

"Forget dinosaurs, the point is that disasters bring people together, so now is the best chance we have to bring you back to Warfang."

"I don't care if dinosaurs do eat everyone, I'm not going."

Imperia sighed, this left her with either telling the whole truth or…

"Spyro wants you back."

"He what? Did Spyro say that, _my_ Spyro?" There wasn't another one around surely?

" _Your_ Spyro, Yes, All he does is train and train; he barely notices the attention of dragonesses his age. Only a few of us see him regularly now, and he demands that I tell him how you're faring every time I've come to see you. He misses you just as much as you miss him."

Cynder sighed.

"Which way is Warfang again?"

"North. Come on, I assume you don't have any things to get before we leave?"

Cynder shook her head.

"Excellent! I can give you a lesson on the way." Imperia smiled, Cynder smiled too, if reluctantly, and both dragons began the flight to Warfang; Spyro and a mysterious disaster were waiting for them.

* * *

 **Oh this brings back memories... It's strange to think that I was the one who wrote this. And now that many of you know who the traitor is I'm sure it'll put these early chapters in a brand new light.**

 **I'd like to think that I've improved since I wrote this, but that's for you to decide, I suppose.  
** **This chapter, for reference's sake, is 2,277 words long. I'll be posting old and new chapters together in pairs, so that you can look between them.**

 **I could rant at length about the problems I have with this chapter. Probably focusing most on the awkward changes of scene, the relatively brief dialogue, the weird way that there is an 'earlier that day' leading to what was technically the day before depending on how you interpret what happens... blarg. Oh, and let's not forget the elephant in the room: 260 words of this chapter are made up of a bad Jurassic Park reference.**

 **This chapter isn't bad, indeed it's fairly good as far as Fanfiction goes, but it's not my best. Now it's time for the part that most of you actually _want_ to read: the new stuff!**

 **I'll see you there. ;)**

 **-4Dragons**


	2. Back in Black: Rewritten

**NOTE: This was last edited on the 1st of September, 2016**

 **That's right: Here we go again. It's chapter one, but not as you know it.**

 **If you approve of this chapter, then someday soon it's very likely that this will be the opening chapter of Destiny. More on that in the author's note at the end of this chapter.**

 **But first: The story.**

* * *

Cynder dived under the ferocious attack of the monster. She slid low around its legs, her long tail whipping and her steely tail blade gleaming with poison.

Her attacks bounced off its throat and belly harmlessly, despite hitting her targets with perfect accuracy.

The monster was a troll, a huge beast about the size of a full grown dragon but much heavier and bulkier. It was green and its thick tough hide made it look as if its body was made out of mossy rock. It had four legs, the front two of which had huge bulging fists that it swung like clubs trying to strike her down.

Any normal troll would have been a laughable challenge for Cynder, she was a grown dragon now and a master fighter. This one, however, wore a mask of earthy green which was covered with powerful sigils that protected the beast from all attacks except earth magic.

Cynder was much faster than the troll was; she darted back in front of it and slashed at its throat, then jumped off the ground, ramming it with her shoulder before darting out of the way.

The troll staggered slightly, vulnerable to an attack.

"Spyro!" Cynder shouted, but no purple dragon flew in to help.

She had lost him.

Cynder snarled, her eyes brimming with sudden tears. The troll recovered and swung a mighty overhand blow, but she took to the air in one smooth movement and the troll roared in frustration as it missed.

Cynder blinked the tears away angrily; she had wasted enough time crying. It wasn't like Spyro was _dead_ , she had just lost him.

The black dragoness glanced around. The landscape was wild, covered with forests and broken up by hills and valleys. There were mountains in the distance. Cynder looked down again, considering the problem of the troll and trying not to think about Spyro. It was hard; he was always in her head, the possibilities of what might have been, and what might still be.

Cynder knew that her situation was her own fault, and the shame of what had happened stung her pride deeply.

She focused blades of wind on her wingtips and flicked them at the troll, paining the beast but not harming it. It leaped, a remarkable feat for such a heavy creature, but Cynder drifted higher and it fell short. She didn't even bother flapping her deep red wings; the slightest shifts of wind magic could take her wherever she wanted to go.

She could fly back to Warfang if she wanted to, it'd be easy. But everybody would still be there, and she knew that things wouldn't have gotten any better. In fact it was likely that everything had only gotten a whole lot worse.

She refused to fly back to Warfang, she didn't want to go anywhere near that place.

The troll bounded forwards and hurled itself into the air again. It was quite determined. Cynder looked down at it scornfully, and then she glanced around looking for a way to kill it.

There was a cliff, not too far away, if the troll jumped from the top of it then the fall might kill it. Cynder began to kite the creature over towards the cliff, taunting it with gusts of wind that made it stumble. She hung in the air just within the creature's reach, while still effortlessly evading all of its attacks.

She had time to think as she flew, and as usual her thoughts turned to the past. Back to her memories of Spyro.

The months that had followed the defeat of the Dark Master and the so called destruction of the world had been the best months of her life. Her life hadn't been very nice up until that point, which made the change to having a life that was actually good all the more startling.

The Dark Master had created a creature called the Destroyer and sent it out to end the world, it had nearly done its job, but Spyro and Cynder had travelled together to the dragon city of Warfang and then onwards to the volcano in the Burned Lands, fighting and defeating The Dark Master, the insane purple dragon Malefor.

Spyro later claimed to have no idea how he did what he'd done afterwards. The world was ending around them, and he had brought it all back together with his magic. He'd never been able to replicate the magic he'd used to do this, and no legends that he knew of referenced any other dragons that had done a similar deed.

After they'd survived the worlds end Spyro and Cynder had decided not to return to Warfang, they'd sent word that they were both still alive, but neither of them had wanted to go back.

Cynder smiled faintly, lost in her thoughts. The world had mended itself over several weeks, and creatures everywhere had come out of hiding, including the remnants of Malefor's Dark Army.

Spyro and Cynder had taken to hunting these bands of orcs, grublins, trolls and assorted monsters down. The purple and black dragon together were vastly powerful, and they'd won every battle they'd been in. Cynder could have lived like that forever, playing, fighting, sleeping together with Spyro under the stars. It was a happiness she'd never known or imagined, and she was sharing it with the dragon she loved.

The two of them had been chained together at the time, connected by a cord of energy and two matching neck bands, bands which Malefor had put on them but which had not been undone by his defeat. Neither of them had minded that chain, it was just one more thing that they shared.

Eventually, however, Spyro had expressed his want to go back to the dragon city of Warfang. Spyro's kindness was one of the things Cynder loved most about him, and she had agreed. She'd regretted it.

Cynder reached the edge of the cliff and the troll hesitated, it was not intelligent enough to know that Cynder had lured it here, but now that it saw the cliff it knew better than to jump off it. It roared in frustration and swiped at the air in her direction.

Cynder closed her eyes, but the memories were already coming back.

She and Spyro had been treated as heroes, but there were many in Warfang who still had deep hatred for Cynder. Among the older dragons she was hated for her past actions, among the dragons of her own age she was hated for being better than they were.

Cynder was brave, strong, beautiful, powerful and intelligent; she was also linked to Spyro by the chain they wore. For this she'd been envied, and because so many of the older dragons didn't want her around, she and Spyro soon ended up with many admirers… but no friends.

Soon the rumours had started; rumours that played up Spyro's heroism while only driving Cynder further away from everyone.

'Cynder is still evil, a wicked, lying dragon twisted by the darkness in her heart. Only brave Spyro can keep her under control, she has to serve him like a slave. You don't believe that? Then tell me, why is she chained to him?'

Cynder snarled as the memory of those words went through her head. She didn't recall who had spoken them, or why she had heard them, but the words themselves had tormented her horribly. No amount of arguing or denying the rumours was enough to stop the reaction that had started, Cynder was subject to cruel insults and disgusted looks. She had to get the chain off; she simply couldn't tolerate it being there.

Spyro had agreed, and after weeks of trying they'd finally been able to remove the chain.

Cynder had hoped this would make things better, but it only got worse. Spyro and Cynder had been separated, given different teachers and tasks to do around the city. Every dragon who hated Cynder made sure that they saw as little of each other as possible, and still Cynder was reviled.

Both of them could see it happening, but there was nothing that they could do. Cynder had thought she feared nothing, and it was true that violence and pain held no terror for her, but she soon learned that she did have a fear, fear of her fellow dragons.

Spyro wanted to help her, he supported her and tried to comfort her, but he was constrained by his admirers and the dragons who hated Cynder, cut off from her. Cynder was left with only two regular friends.

One was Volteer, the electric guardian, who was one of the three highest ranked dragons in the city at that time but who still didn't have the authority to command everyone to be nice to Cynder. The other was Imperia, a wind dragoness who was in a relationship with Volteer.

Eventually Cynder had left. She'd stalked out of Warfang late one night and simply never returned.

That had been several years ago now, but the loss of the dragon she loved, and the damage that had been done to her pride, were still raw and painful.

How dare this troll wear an earthen mask? How dare it remind her of Spyro, or everything that she had lost!

Cynder dived from on high, black smoky shadow billowed from her jaws and swirled around her scales, the troll was engulfed in darkness and blinded.

Cynder grasped its head; she landed on its back with her wings spread wide, her claws digging into its throat as she tried her hardest to make it suffer a taste of the pain that the black dragoness was remembering because of it. The troll swung its clubbed fist at her, roaring.

Cynder caught the attack in her paws.

She'd grown in her exile; she'd matured into a young adult dragoness, slender, graceful, curvaceous and beautiful with grand wings and fine horns. She looked a great deal like the image that Malefor had crafted for her, albeit smaller, back when she was the Terror of the Skies and known far and wide for her power.

And she _was_ powerful. Cynder stepped onto and then down the troll's back; landing behind it while it struggled to keep up with her speed. Then, she hooked her claws around it and, with a scream of fury and effort, threw both herself and the huge creature off the edge of the cliff.

Cynder's wings caught the air, snapping open and catching her before she began to tumble. She hovered above and watched coldly as the troll plunged to the ground below.

There was a dull thud, muffled by the distance. The fall didn't kill it, but the troll was wounded. Cynder considered swooping down on it and picking it up to drop it again. With wind magic to aid her flying she'd be able to do it, despite the big beast being nearly her size and several times her weight.

Then she noticed that the mask had been knocked from the troll's face, making it vulnerable to other attacks. For a moment Cynder was tempted to go down there and finish it off, but she changed her mind.

The troll staggered upright, it was hurt and angry. It looked around for the form of a black dragoness which it expected to see lying limp on the ground. It saw nothing, but it looked up when it heard a sharp cracking sound.

The troll looked up just in time to see a large part of the cliff face split free and come crashing down on its head. That was the last thing it ever saw.

Cynder used wind magic to divert the huge cloud of dust that billowed up around her, and allowed gravity to start her descent.

It had been years since she'd gone, years since she'd last seen Spyro. Playing, fighting and sleeping under the stars; it wasn't the same without him. She hadn't even said goodbye in person, she'd had to ask Volteer to carry a message.

She regretted leaving, but she felt it had been the right thing to do. Now she didn't really have much choice in the matter.

Cynder had spent her time honing her fighting skills, constantly improving herself. She was as confident in her abilities as she had ever been; despite her still young age she was stronger than any average dragon and at a level comparable to the Guardians of Warfang. She just wished that she could be as confident in dealing with problems that she wasn't allowed to solve with violence.

Cynder landed gracefully on the rubble she'd created. She always made sure to look her best, even if there was nobody around to see her. Looking good was simply a habit.

Cynder frowned as a shadow passed over her, she looked up towards the sun and saw a dragon was circling above her.

She watched it warily; it was a graceful female, slender and voluptuous with large wings. The dragon was smooth edged, she had no tail blade, or wing blades like Cynder had.

Cynder saw silver scales gleaming in the sunlight, and a metal band around the new dragoness's neck. She called a greeting, allowing herself to smile.

The dragoness dipped her wings and fell into a graceful showy spin, landing dramatically in front of Cynder.

"Imperia." Cynder said, smiling. "It's good to see you."

Imperia's name did not suit her; she was not imperious or imperial in the slightest. She was a playful, fun loving dragon who had always been incredibly kind to Cynder.

Volteer had visited when he could, but it had been Imperia who had kept Cynder sane during her time alone. The wind dragoness had met up with her every few days, and the two of them had spent long hours together, playing, training or just talking.

"Cynder! Oh it's been way too long." Imperia skipped forwards, rearing up, and gave Cynder a hug.

Cynder accepted the hug, smiling at Imperia's comment. "It's only been three days!" She laughed. "We see each other a lot."

"It feels like it's been longer." Imperia laughed. "A lot has happened since then. I'll fill you in on all the details."

Cynder nodded. "Sounds good." The presence of the silver dragoness cheered her up immediately.

Imperia had been the mother figure that Cynder had never before known or expected to have; the elder dragoness had taken Cynder under her wing as both a friend and a teacher. She was also the only dragon Cynder had ever heard of who had a twin, an identical twin sister in fact. Cynder supposed that they'd hatched from the same egg, implausible though it seemed. Imperia's twin, a dragoness named Altia, disliked Cynder considerably.

Imperia wore a metal choker; a stylish piece of jewellery just like the one Cynder had once worn, in order to help other dragons to identify which of them was which.

Cynder no longer wore anything, in fact she didn't have any possessions either; she'd gladly removed her jewellery and abandoned her armour in the week following the defeat of the Dark Master. Imperia, however, wore her choker proudly.

Cynder didn't need to see the choker to know which dragoness was which, Imperia was far more sassy and flirty, she always had a bright smile on her face and a kind look in her eyes. Altia was beautiful, but stiff and proper; she came across as distant and arrogant. Imperia was liquid and immature, it was easy to recognise her at a glance.

Imperia hopped backwards into the air, turning and touching down lightly; she was a skilled wind mistress and she always moved as if she weighed nothing. She'd taught Cynder a great deal about wind magic, and plenty of other things besides.

Cynder had picked up most of what Imperia had taught her, as the wind dragoness was a great teacher. Imperia, however, always responded to that compliment by saying Cynder was just an extraordinary student.

Certainly the wind dragoness had been a helpful influence on her. She had been the one who had encouraged Cynder to refine her style and movements, shaping Cynder's graceful yet deadly appearance.

Imperia was not as intimidating as Cynder, but she was sexy, seductive, stylish and skilled at manipulating others. When she wanted something she usually got it, and Cynder saw by the look in Imperia's eyes that right now she wanted something.

"So what has happened?"

Imperia smiled playfully. "You'll want to be there for yourself."

"Back in Warfang?" Cynder clarified. "You're asking me to go back to Warfang?"

Imperia nodded. "Yes I am. And please don't just say no. I wouldn't ask you to come back if I didn't think it would work."

Cynder looked sceptical. "Why would it work?"

Imperia hesitated for a moment. "Several reasons…"

Cynder was about to comment when Imperia continued.

"I want to explain on the way, so if you're coming then let's go."

Cynder glared. "Sometimes you're really annoying."

Imperia laughed. "Why thank you, I try. So do you have anything to bring with you?"

Cynder shook her head. "I don't own anything."

"I didn't think so." Imperia said. "Now let's go!"

The silver dragoness took off in a curvet, making the movement as showy as possible. Cynder sighed, and then took off with similar flair.

Imperia laughed again. "Very nice takeoff, you looked good." She banked north and Cynder joined her, flying slightly above.

"I reserve the right to leave at any time." Cynder said.

"Trust me, you won't want to." Imperia said playfully.

"So what's the big deal? Why are we going to Warfang?"

Imperia smiled sweetly. "Because everyone will be distracted tomorrow, and there will be celebrations aplenty, and that makes for the perfect moment for you to return to the city."

"And what will everyone be celebrating?" Cynder asked.

"The end of a war." Imperia told her.

* * *

The black dragoness pressed the silver for details until the sun went down, but she got nothing else from Imperia. Her curiosity didn't allow her to leave and as always she enjoyed the older dragoness's company a great deal, hardly noticing the ground rushing by below them. Imperia passed the flying time by chattering to Cynder about Volteer's latest project, a detailed examination of the properties of different solids and liquids, focusing on their magical and electrical conductivity as well as their melting or boiling points.

Clouds began to shroud the sky, threatening rain. Soon the threat of rain became realised, and drops began to hit Cynder's wings and body.

She created a bubble of wind around herself, a simple technique she'd learned from Imperia years ago. It deflected all light objects away from her and required very little energy or attention to maintain.

Cynder sensed Imperia do the same thing only a moment after she created her own bubble, their respective magics brushed at each other as they each manipulated the air between them.

Cynder smiled and flicked a few drops of rain into Imperia's shield, splashing her upper body. The more direct attacks were not deflected by wind shields. Imperia giggled and responded by counterattacking with a few raindrops of her own. Her first shot hit Cynder right on the nose and Imperia's smirk told Cynder that was exactly where she'd aimed it.

Cynder responded by working on her own accuracy, and the two of them sniped at each other with raindrops until they were both almost as wet as they would have been if they'd just let themselves get rained on. Imperia was more skilled, but Cynder was able to hold her own.

"It's lucky we're not using more powerful magic." Imperia laughed. "I could have deflected or dodged all of those raindrops easily. Just for the record."

"I could have too." Cynder replied. "I'd just fly away from you if I didn't want to get counterattacked."

Imperia giggled. "This is fun!" A moment later she yelped. "Cynder! That hit my eye!"

Cynder laughed. "That's what I was aiming at."

"You, young lady, are very badly behaved!"

"Says you."

"I'm a paragon of properness." Imperia insisted.

Cynder laughed again. "If even _half_ of what you've told me is true you're a long way from being proper!"

"Maybe not, but I'm well liked, and that's what I want to be." Imperia winked. "In fact I have almost as much political power as the mighty Cyril does, despite my scandalous behaviour."

"Let's hope so, you'll probably need all of it to keep the idiots in Warfang from trying to mob me and make me pay for my crimes."

"Oh Cynder, many dragons in Warfang know it's not your fault. The anger has gotten cold, there are only a few who will try to rile up the population against you." Imperia looked at Cynder seriously, but with optimism in her eyes. "They all have their reasons, some of them are indeed stupid, but the important thing is that this time they're outnumbered by the ones who've come to terms with what you once were and what you've done for the sake of this world."

"That sounds nice." Cynder agreed. "I've wanted to come back for so long, and if you're right then maybe I'll stay."

Imperia cheered. "Good girl! I'm so proud of you right now."

"Still reserving the right to leave at any time." Cynder said, but she was smiling.

"I respect that. Just please give it your best try to stay, I'll do everything I can to help you, and so will Volteer and Spyro."

"Spyro." Cynder repeated, the single quiet word carrying years of memory and emotion as it always did. "So… how is Spyro?" She asked.

Imperia had always been a bit evasive about answering Cynder's questions on Spyro. All Cynder knew was that he was something of a loner, and that he had continued to excel in magic just like she had. She'd said that Cynder would need to meet him again herself, and every time she said so she'd ask Cynder to consider going back to Warfang.

Now Cynder was finally going, so now she felt she definitely deserved answers.

Imperia smirked, knowing what Cynder was thinking.

"I'll tell you tomorrow morning, ok? You have to spend the night at my place."

* * *

Warfang looked foreboding against the dark sky as Cynder and Imperia flew towards it. The city's high walls and large buildings made an unsettling silhouette. The light coloured stone the city was made of was obscured, and only the largest shapes were visible, not the minor details that had been so carefully designed by the moles who had built the city.

In the dark of the storm Warfang looked almost sinister. Thunder cracked, and the sound echoed ominously off the hard stone walls.

Imperia had to identify herself to guards twice on their way into the city, both times to guard dragons patrolling the skies. Cynder thought that the city guards seemed as if they were on edge, something clearly wasn't entirely right in Warfang.

She landed on Imperia's balcony, the two of them were more sombre now and it was too dark to talk much.

Imperia's bed was easily large enough for two, and the pair of dragonesses curled up together in it. However with the storm neither of them slept very well.

* * *

The sun had gone down hours ago. The storm had come rolling in fast; the oncoming clouds tinted a deep bloody red by the last light of the day.

Something stood upon one of the rooftops of Warfang, watching the world go by. In form it appeared to be a dragon, but in truth it was something else, something utterly unnatural.

For long hours it waited, night fell; a few late dragons arrived in the city. A momentous event was to happen tomorrow. An event that was of no consequence to the mission, and therefore a distant afterthought.

At last the time came, and the dragon began to walk. Down from the rooftop and through the streets of Warfang a short way. The dragon crossed paths with a few inhabitants of Warfang as it walked, but it's presence went unseen and unremarked.

Soon there was another dragon walking beside it, a dragon who it was meant to meet, a dragon who had come here just for this moment. This moment that had been arranged since years before. The unnatural dragon followed the treacherous one below the ground, into the earth.

The Vaults of Warfang were well protected by magic, the guards were just an afterthought, there more to give a feeling of security then out of any expected need for defence.

The Vaults were open during the day, the guards there to watch and supervise. At night the doors were closed and nobody was allowed in.

It was night, and the doors were open. Two dragons lay still in the corridor. They may have been dead, or merely unconscious, the unnatural dragon did not care.

The treacherous dragon had done the deed, and now they stayed outside the vaults, keeping watch as the guards had previously done.

The treacherous dragon waited for long minutes, before eventually risking a peek into the vault. It was empty; there was no sign of the supernatural presence that had come.

The remaining dragon shivered slightly, feeling chills. This had been an unsettling night. They walked into the vault. Two chests were open, and the contents of one had been removed.

The dragon picked up what had been left in the other chest and put it under their wing, then they walked back out into the night.

The pair of guards woke up several hours later and raised the alarm. The Vault was searched, and two artefacts were reported missing.

The first was a spherical ball of black iron, within which was imprisoned a purple crystal.

The second was a paired set of snake charms, such as might be put around the necks of two dragons…

The traitor took their chosen item, and returned to their home. They did sleep eventually, but they were tormented by nightmares until dawn.

* * *

 **And there it is, at 4,223 words this is almost twice as long as the original chapter.**

 **My writing style has improved, and this chapter doesn't have the same flaws that the other did as far as I know, but does it deserve to replace the classic chapter one? For instance this one could be too long, or too boring.**

 **I'll make a poll on my profile, please vote, telling me which one you think is better. I'd really appreciate comments or private messages if you also have feedback or suggestions.**

 **I'll post the next pair of chapters once the revised version of Chapter Two is finished.  
Until then I love you all, and thankyou for reading!**

 **-4Dragons**


	3. The Legendary Hero: Original

Cynder and Imperia had arrived at Warfang not long after the sun had set. Cynder had received a practical lesson in wind control as the rain began to fall and the storm to roll in; the wind ability to create a bubble of air free of rain, hail and other obstructions had certainly made the flight easier.

Warfang looked more foreboding than Cynder remembered from her last visit. Warfang looked more foreboding than Cynder remembered from her last visit. The high city walls seemed sinister in the dim light, water streamed through the gutters, lightning silhouetted the city towers and Cynder could feel each rolling wave of thunder make a distinctive echo off the hard stone.

A larger number of guard dragons watched the land entrances to the city then Cynder remembered and Imperia had needed to identify herself to another guard before the two dragons had been allowed inside Warfang proper. Aside from this additional security Cynder had seen no particular disasters. Cynder slept in Imperia's chambers, but with the storm neither dragon slept very well.

* * *

"There's a disaster in Warfang? Is it the breakfast?" Cynder teased. The breakfast wasn't really all that bad, but there wasn't enough for two dragons, and Cynder had a surprisingly big appetite for her slender figure.

"Surely you're used to going hungry? Food is scarce on the borders of civilization" Imperia said.

"City dragons like to say that." Cynder mused "The truth is that there's lots of food in the wilderness… For any dragon who's good enough to find it." Cynder smiled.

"Wild food certainly agrees with you. And you've done well to stay presentable."

"What do you mean?"

"Cynder, you look very fetching."

"Oh, um, thankyou... You know it's not that hard to get by in the wild, I mean, a dragon can fly faster and hit harder than most of the creatures out there, also magic really helps in hunting. There are plenty of waterfalls to bathe under, so keeping clean is no problem."

"I think I prefer the city: conversation, heated baths, the library, students to teach. I'm not an outdoors dragon."

"Spyro…" Cynder quietly added the name to Imperia's list.

"Sorry? I missed that." Cynder thought for a moment before deciding to hurry the conversation along, this chatting stuff could take all day.

"Where's Spyro? Does he know I'm here?"

"No, but he-"

"But he wanted me to come?" Cynder pressed, Imperia hesitated.

"I know he'll be-"

Cynder's voice took on a steely tone. "Imperia please, don't evade my questions. Explain why you dragged me back here, quickly."

"Quickly? Fine then. In the colosseum today, Spyro will fight to the death."

* * *

Spyro the purple dragon, hero of dragonkind, the saviour of the entire world, stood at the centre of the colosseum, less than a hundred metres from where Cynder sat in the stands. He had grown like she had, Spyro was tall, lean and strong, and he looked proud and quietly confident. He had grown more handsome too, Cynder couldn't help thinking.

Even from her seat in the vast stands and surrounded by dragons, Cynder could practically sense the power within Spyro. He faced the huge Iron Gate patiently, waiting for it to open. A sound from behind that gate made him tilt his head, Cynder's heart skipped a beat, just for a moment Spyro looked shockingly like Malefor, the Dark Master, the long dead evil purple dragon. Nobody else seemed to see it, few people had ever seen Malefor and lived after all. The moment passed and Cynder looked around the colosseum.

The crowd was mostly moles; Half of Warfang had turned out to watch the dragonfight, perhaps the only dragonfight some of them would ever see. They were packed tight and filled nearly three quarters the stands. The dragons, being much larger than the moles, took more space, and were fewer, but dragons had never been hugely numerous. Cynder noted that the moles had pressed away from a small contingent of dragons, who in turn were on the opposite side of the arena to the main group of dragons, they looked unfriendly. Cynder turned to Imperia, who was seated next to her.

"Who is Spyro fighting?"

Imperia, never content with a name when a history lesson would suffice, briefly explained what was going on and why. Cynder, of course, had been away and didn't know what was happening.

"Long ago dragon society was arranged differently, dragons grouped together according to skills. There were the Artisans, The dream catchers; they were weird ones, there were the beast makers and so on. Many of these dragon factions became unnecessary as time went on, eventually dragon society was re-organised into the elemental structure of today.

"The Peacekeepers were caught up in a battle with the Old Fire Dragons and eventually lost their homes and their lives. Cliff town, city of the Peacekeepers, has been under Old Fire control ever since. The city was renamed Shattershelf. It has been rebuilt into an impenetrable fortress; it has never been taken by an enemy, or even successfully infiltrated.

"We never proved that the Shattershelf dragons gave aid to The Apes on the night of the dragon temple raid, when your egg was captured by the Dark Master, but the Old Fire Dragons had long held a truce with our enemy. After Malefor was defeated we believe that their city was practically undamaged. The Fire dragons struck us in the first year after that, and dragonkind has been at war ever since."

Cynder absorbed this information, it didn't answer her question but it was interesting.

"How has the war gone? And who is Spyro fighting?"

"The actual war has stalled; dragon war usually has few casualties. As you know dragons can take an extraordinary amount of punishment with little permanent damage, our scales deflect most physical attacks and our bones are strong enough to withstand even direct hits from giant monsters like The Golem. As the dragon fighters on each side are evenly matched nobody has been able to gain the advantage. Only Ignitus, being the fire guardian, commanded the respect needed to try diplomacy, when he died we lost our best chance of stopping this war. Flare, the new fire guardian, is skilled enough-

Imperia stopped and laughed slightly.

"Okay she's amazing actually and I'm a huge fan of hers, but she hasn't even been given a chance to parlay with the Fire. The leader of the fire dragons claimed he was insulted by her attempt and invited her or her champion to a fight to the death. Spyro volunteered himself to face the dragon leader in combat."

"Spyro would never let another dragon die here."

"No, Spyro is famous for never hiding from a fight, and he's legendary because he always wins."

"That sounds like Spyro."

"Spyro has become truly powerful, the strength of a purple dragon is remarkable and he isn't even fully grown yet. The bad news is that he's up against one of the only dragons who may be powerful enough to beat him."

"Who is this dragon? And why, if he has a whole army of possible champions, will he fight Spyro himself?"

"His name is Magmar, he is the dragon who fought in the Ice and Fire wars for fifty years, after they had gone on for two hundred, and ended them with fire's victory, some say singlehandedly. He's one of the only dragons to ever reach mastery of two elemental powers. His earth element is the result of pure determination, but not his most dangerous. He is a lethal close combat fighter and he is perhaps the greatest fire dragon we've seen in a hundred years. Easily the equal of Ignitus."

"Spyro has four elements." Cynder observed, as a purple dragon he could master Earth, Ice, Fire and Lightning. Cynder had four elements as well, Shadow, Poison, Wind and Fear.

"You have four elements also, but you two are unique. It takes most dragons decades to even use basic elemental techniques from another element. I'm learning to use ice, but it's just as hard as I thought it would be."

* * *

A horn sounded. An hourglass turned, marking the start of the match.

The gate opened.

It opened in a suitably dramatic manner. The gate rose with a groan and a rattling of huge chains. From the darkness a huge red dragon emerged. Magmar was easily twice Spyro's size, and clad in armour of jagged black metal. Compared to him Spyro looked… heroic.

Cynder could think of no better word; they had faced bigger than this dragon, the Golem of the deep earth for example. She felt confident Spyro had a chance here. Her confidence took a blow, however, when she saw the dragon's eyes. They were the eyes of a killer, a trained, experienced, cold hearted killer.

The two dragons wasted no time on threats or speeches, the crowd grew silent. Magmar just stalked toward Spyro, meaning to crush the smaller dragon in his claws. Spyro seemed totally unfazed by the threat coming for him, but Cynder knew he was doing what she in the stands was doing too, looking for weaknesses in that terrifying spiked armour. She saw only the smallest places in which to attack; she could perhaps slip a poison strike onto Magmar's foreleg, or his eyes, but a dragon like him would be ready for that, and Spyro had no poison anyway.

Magmar covered the final distance to Spyro in an explosive rush, but the crowd stared as Spyro leapt straight through the mighty dragon's attack and struck a huge blow on his armoured skull. The crowd roared. Cynder actually felt the concussion of the blow in the wind, from the stands, an attack like that could fell a troll. Magmar's burning eyes never left Spyro's. The Fire Lord didn't even seem to notice the impact. Spyro landed some distance away and looked back at him defiantly, prepared for the next attack.

Again Magmar walked straight up to Spyro and raised a claw. Spyro repeated his earlier move, evading the attack and going straight for his opponent's head, this time however, Magmar revealed his true speed, his tail, spiked, armoured and lethal, missed Spyro by millimetres as the purple dragon twisted out of the way, but he moved directly into Magmar's well-timed punch. There was a solid thwack and Spyro lost his balance. Magmar immediately grabbed him and wrenched.

There was a crack.

Cynder had a miniature heart attack.

Spyro exploded.

The dragons were hurled apart; Magmar suffered far more of the impact, and was thrown against the stadium wall so hard as to break it. Spyro touched down after his blazing comet dash and turned quickly back to face his opponent. The crowd roared.

The armour on Magmar's claws was actually melted, the metal scarred by the heat, but the dragon himself was only bruised, and growing angry.

Spyro had come out second best from the encounter, his foreleg was twisted at an unnatural angle, it made Cynder feel sick to look at, and he couldn't put weight on it. The crowd grew uncertain, Spyro flexed to determine the damage, and then he made a sudden movement and howled in pain as he popped his dislocated bone back into place. Someone in the crowd threw up.

Magmar had encountered his own problem, some of the complicated plate joints on his back armour had been bent out of shape. He ripped a large section of it off furiously and threw it on the ground. He looked up and saw Spyro carefully stand on his injured leg. Both dragons re-appraised their opponent, and then Magmar used his own comet dash.

Cynder stared; she hadn't known the fire element was capable of such raw power. Magmar crossed the distance between the dragons in an eye blink; Spyro used earth to defend himself, raising a precipice of stone and soil in Magmar's way. It meant nothing to the master fire dragon; He could cut through solid stone like fresh snow.

The earth wall shattered like glass, some of it turned _into_ glass, Magmar's comet dash was that hot. At the final moment Magmar used a flourish of magic that Cynder hadn't even known was possible, even as he hurled into Spyro at brutal speed the fire dragon instantaneously converted all of his power into a critical range explosion.

Cynder felt power humming inside her body. The world turned purple and time slowed to a crawl. Spyro had used Dragon Time, a power that was unique to the purple dragons. Cynder had gone through the cruellest training imaginable to learn to use this ability after Spyro had come to the attention of Malefor. Not that her training had ever meant anything until now, Spyro had defeated her evil self anyway, but she alone saw what happened next.

Even with Dragon Time Spyro used only seconds to react to the attack, his earth boulder would be no defence at all, but it seemed like his only option. Had he used it Spyro would have been blasted into the walls of the Arena with bone breaking force, had he not used it Spyro would have been blown into shreds by an attack like that. What he did was either madness or genius, and had nothing to do with earth at all. Spyro used his Ice storm attack, but not on himself, instead he targeted Magmar's explosion.

Time restarted.

The Explosion unmade itself and compressed into an orb of pure power. Ice, steam and fire warred for control within the fragile bounds of Spyro and Magmar's magic. Both dragons realised at the same time that they were standing next to a disaster waiting to happen, Spyro hurled himself backwards and dove for cover. Magmar activated his earth boulder just in time, as the bubble of elemental power exploded the two dragons were thrown to opposite sides of the arena.

Spyro rose and shook off the damage, and then he turned an icy gaze upon his enemy. Magmar's entire body was beginning to glow with heat, waves of bloodthirsty anger radiated from him. The huge dragon was spitting molten fire

Spyro's first step was unsteady, his second step wasn't.

"Chill out." He muttered and he took a deep breath and exhaled a blizzard.

Visibility dropped to nearly zero, Cynder could see neither Spyro nor Magmar, but the blizzard was carefully contained in the arena and did not rise out of it. Cynder admired Spyro's control. Fire split the storm, but Spyro's ice closed around it and choked it.

"This is one of Spyro's best techniques." Imperia whispered. "Massive area of effect damage and stunning after effects, it's unique to him, using ice an-"

The entire snow cloud lit up blindingly, elemental lightning coursed through every snowflake and illuminated the stadium brilliantly. Inside the lightning storm Magmar howled in pain. Cynder was Impressed, and also grateful that the blizzard had not extended up into the crowd and gotten her electrocuted.

The heat turned the ice to steam and when the steam cleared Spyro stood tall and proud. The crowd erupted into cheers, only Cynder seemed to realize that Spyro was still in danger.

"Spyro! Behind you!" She cried, Spyro's head jerked up at the sound of her voice and then he turned and Magmar rose from out of the ground and Spyro couldn't dodge the attack and that spiked terrible tail caught Spyro full on, sending him crashing down.

Cynder threw caution to the winds and began screaming instructions and encouragement to Spyro. Imperia had to physically restrain her from trying to join the fight.

Magmar was smoking in a manner a fire dragon probably shouldn't, and he limped severely on his rear leg. His armour was charred and practically ruined, but he was still winning. The dragon looked across the crowd, daring them to challenge him. Terrified silence filled the stands; Cynder didn't care all her mind was focused on Spyro's form, trying to get up.

Those burning eyes fixed on Cynder, the fire dragon looked at her and something like recognition showed in Magmar's gaze, it was followed by pure overwhelming hatred. It took all of Imperia's strength to hold Cynder down, but she managed it and Cynder could only watch as Magmar slowly turned his back on her and limped over to Spyro. Spyro looked at him as he approached; the red dragon said something quietly to Spyro, Cynder felt sure it had to do with her.

For a moment there was a standoff, than both dragons activated comet dash and hurtled together.

One might have expected an explosion, and had two dragons using the fire technique actually met in the centre of the arena, one would certainly have witnessed an explosion, but Spyro was a purple dragon, and he understood the elements in a way no mere fire dragon ever could.

Magmar had outcompeted Spyro in melee, and he did have more experience and power. Had he maintained his battering he may have even overwhelmed the smaller dragon. Magmar was devastating with his fire attacks. Spyro, however, was completely in a league of his own; his elemental combination of versatility and control left even the strongest dragon completely and laughably outclassed. Spyro had been doing nothing but train for nearly three years, and the results were in.

Magmar didn't understand why his comet dash turned to smoke, he had no idea that Spyro had used his ice, which was after all the easiest element with which to douse fire, to foul up and shut off Magmar's magic. Enlightenment didn't come for the red when Spyro's intact comet dash crashed into him, but what _did_ come were bright dancing lights of a starry persuasion, which was small consolation to the confused and dazed dragon. Spyro promptly doused his fallen foe in a large snowdrift. Then he filled that with lightning to make sure he stayed down.

The crowd erupted in cheering. Imperia whooped in celebration, and then Cynder broke free from her and threw herself into the arena.

"Spyro!" She cried, running toward him as fast as she could.

"Cynder?" Spyro looked around, saw her "Cynder!" he exclaimed. He limped a step, than ran straight to her.

The crowd grew completely silent as the two dragons embraced, but neither dragon knew anything of the world beyond the two of them.

Cynder wouldn't have recognised one mole among a crowd of thousands. All moles looked alike really, but this particular mole was one of a few that Cynder and Spyro had saved from a fire, on the day that Malefor had tried to invade Warfang some three years ago. The mole recognised Cynder, and after a moment of trying to process what was going on he began to cheer and cheer wildly. For a moment he cheered alone, then Imperia on the stands joined him, and in moments the entire crowd was chanting its approval for the reunited dragons and for Spyro's victory.

Imperia laughed, but she wasn't heard in the general din. Things could hardly have worked out better for her.

* * *

 **Sorry for the delay, everyone. I got distracted by many things, not least of which has been drawing a pretty picture of Flare. Drawing is slow work...**

 **Now you have twice as much story to compare. Roughly.  
These new chapters have been much longer than the old ones. This one is 3,200 words, while the new chapter is about 7,000. I'm not sure how much of a problem this is...**

 **-4Dragons**


	4. The Legendary Hero: Rewritten

**Note: Last edit on January 16 2017**

* * *

Cynder yawned widely, she raised her head and looked around. There was warmth around her body and she was lying on a very soft and comfortable surface. She glanced down and saw that Imperia was curled around her. Cynder sighed, she'd slept poorly. Perhaps it had been the softness; she was not used to sleeping on a bed.

That being said it was an unusually comfy morning. Maybe beds had their perks.

Cynder nudged Imperia awake, and the silver dragoness sighed before opening her eyes.

"Good morning." Imperia said, smiling.

"Yep." Cynder replied. She shuffled around slightly on the bed. "This is sort of nice."

"There's a reason why I'm a city dragon." Imperia said brightly. She yawned. "But it's hard to get out of bed, harder than picking myself up off the ground."

Cynder shrugged. "I'll get up when you do."

"I'll get up once you're no longer sitting on three of my legs." Imperia responded playfully.

Cynder nodded, lifting herself slightly and allowing Imperia to squirm out of the bed.

Imperia crawled out of bed and shook herself from head to tail. She glanced back at Cynder and then swept her wings dramatically.

"Welcome to my home!"

Cynder smiled at Imperia, and then looked around. It had been too dark to do more than wander into the bed and curl up last night.

Now, however, she could look around.

Imperia's room was circular because it was the top story of one of the massive towers of Warfang. To be more accurate Imperia's room was ring shaped. There was a spiral staircase going straight through the middle of the room, and you could walk circles around the room. There was another side room on the outside wall.

How did a circular tower have a side room? Cynder took a moment to visualise the silhouette of the outside of the tower. Imperia's tower had what architects called a turret, but what Cynder would have just called a 'mini tower stuck to the side of the big tower'.

The turret gave Imperia a smaller room that was semicircular, and which had a huge bath in it.

Those two shapes made up Imperia's room, a ring with a semicircle on one side. Cynder glanced around the rest of it. The stone of the walls was a pleasant pale yellow colour, the same colour as most of the stone in Warfang was. There was a luscious red carpet below them, Cynder could tell it would be very pleasurable to just bury herself in it and sleep there instead of the bed.

The bed, continuing that train of thought, was opposite the door. It was low to the ground, simple to step on and off of. The sheets were light purple.

One side of the outer wall was all shutters, which Imperia had closed against the storm. Those led out to a nice balcony that it was easy to take off from or land on.

There was a chandelier on the ceiling, a gorgeous intricate construction of glass. Imperia saw Cynder's gaze rise to it and she smiled.

"So what do you think?"

"It's really nice." Cynder said.

Imperia shrugged. "I don't want to overdecorate. I entertain guests here fairly often, and I like them to feel at home rather than being overwhelmed. This is fairly standard for a dragon's home, although I've refined it a fair bit and tried to keep a comfortable theme."

Cynder considered. "I think it does that well. This is the first actual living area that I've spent much time in, so I don't have much to compare to. But still, well done on decorating it."

"It's worth waiting for compliments from you. They always make me feel warm inside." Imperia laughed. She walked to the bathroom. "Care to bathe?"

Cynder followed. "Why? I'm clean enough. I find lots of waterfalls and streams to swim around in."

"Ah, but cities have heated baths. Trust me, compare to this streams have got nothing."

Cynder was about to argue that she preferred waterfalls anyway, and the experience of standing under one of those was not something that a bath could re-create. Then she noticed something that was equally interesting to comment on. "Why is there a door to this room? We're dragons. It's not like we wear clothes or need privacy."

"I think it looks neater that way. Moles don't think that way, they see bathing as being an intimate activity that should be private. It's partly out of respect for them that I have the door."

"You have moles bathing here?" Cynder asked, bewildered. "Why?"

"No, silly! The bath is far too deep! I bathe and sometimes moles come visiting me. It's polite to have a door." Imperia hopped down into the bath. While she was standing in it the sides of the bath came up well over her shoulder height, it was also extremely spacious.

Cynder joined Imperia in the empty bathtub. "This thing could fit four dragons comfortably."

"It never hurts to be prepared. Besides, I like swimming laps." Imperia said playfully. "Now, enjoy this."

Imperia turned a tap and water gushed out. In seconds it had spread across the bath and was lapping around Cynder's ankles. It was lovely and warm.

"How long has it been since you had a warm bath? With soap?" Imperia asked.

Cynder shrugged. "Several years." She admitted. The water was rising up her legs, it was a weird feeling, Cynder was used to diving into cold water, not being enveloped by warm. "I have to ask, how exactly is this heated?"

Imperia smirked. "We're at the top of a tower, it's almost impossible to get hot water pumped up here. So I came up with my own solution. Don't tell anyone about this, by the way, I like to leave it as a mystery."

"How come?" Cynder asked. "Having hot water all over the city seems like a great idea. Unless it's heated in a way that would make nobody want to swim in it." Cynder looked down at the clear water with suspicion.

"The water is perfectly normal, it's heated by magic darling. Most dragons can get hot water pumped to them, but I live in a tower. I worked with the moles who designed the plumbing here, and I had them divide the entire upper pipeline into several hundred fitted segments, then I drew sigils on the inside of every segment, all linked to my tap here."

Imperia proudly indicated the tap.

"The pipes heat the water while it's on its way here. Setting it up was a nightmare, but now that it's done it's more than worth it. Water at any temperature I want, no noticeable delay, no limitations! I also added a few filters, just because I had the whole pipeline already in pieces for me to play with, and I thought I'd make a few additions."

Imperia looked at Cynder.

"Am I boring you by talking about this? I'm sorry." She giggled.

Cynder shook her head. "I did ask to know. But I never knew magic could do that."

"Sigils can do a lot of things. Theirs is a power of subtlety. I'd be delighted to teach you, but studying them takes years and a lot of precision. While you were roaming there was no point in you studying them, you got more power and versatility from using your mana yourself. But now with access to the Warfang library we can study them together!" Imperia's eyes shone with enthusiasm.

"So why don't others in Warfang have the same setup?"

"Well, as I said, sigils are difficult to learn. They take time to create, some of them take hours and they require many links in order to bring the sigils that do things up to command sigils. Basically if you want to control a sigil then you need to link it to another sigil, which goes to a simpler one, which goes to a simpler one, until they're simple enough that one touch will turn them off and on. Like the ones just here."

Imperia once again indicated her tap.

"There are very few dragons with the patience to actually get good at using these things. Sure I could visit every home in the city and stay for a few days at each, taking apart their plumbing and inscribing it with magic, but honestly the system works well enough as it is, and I have students to teach."

"I'll keep sigils in mind, I think." Cynder said. "But until I'm sure I want to stay in Warfang I'll leave them alone." The water was lapping at her belly now, it was weird. Cynder stood taller to keep her underside out of the water, but it was still rising.

"Just relax into it." Imperia said, smiling. She'd crouched down on her haunches, her neck and a small curve of her hindquarters was all that was still above the surface.

Cynder reluctantly crouched, and then she sighed in pleasure as the water surrounded and warmed her body. "This is pretty good." She murmured.

"Now, I did promise to tell you what was going on."

"Finally." Cynder grumbled. "You could have told me before we left yesterday."

"Ah, well I'm telling you now. How to put this? Let's see… Spyro is going to fight to the death in the colosseum today."

Cynder immediately tried to stand up, and then realised that she couldn't get purchase on the floor of the bath and thrashed in the water for a moment before rapidly swimming to the side to get out.

"Wait!" Imperia caught Cynder's tail with her own and slowed Cynder down. "It's ok! We have two hours before the fight starts!"

Cynder twisted around, growling slightly. "I want to go to him now! I can't believe you'd not tell me something like that immediately!"

"You can't go to him now, just wait and you'll see him in the arena."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Cynder demanded.

"I didn't know until a few days ago." Imperia said defensively. "Besides I dragged you all the way back to Warfang for the sake of this."

Cynder relaxed, but she kept her scowl. "Well you'd better start talking fast, because if you don't explain then I'm going to go to Spyro anyway." Cynder paused for a moment as a thought struck her. "And don't think I've forgotten what you said yesterday about celebrations and the end of a war. What could anyone possibly have to celebrate about?"

Imperia smiled, not even Cynder's glare could crack her cheery composure. "Obviously we'll only celebrate if he wins." She said smoothly. "But believe me that's what's going to happen. It'll be a dangerous fight, don't get me wrong, but Spyro will win."

"Who's he fighting, then? And why?" Cynder asked.

Imperia took this as an invitation to give Cynder a quick history lesson. Imperia was a teacher, and what was the point of just giving a name when a history lesson would suffice?

Cynder sensed the impending lecture, having become quite familiar with Imperia's behaviour over the time they'd known each other. She swished her wings slowly through the warm water as she reluctantly settled in to listen to it.

"As I'm sure you remember long ago dragon society was arranged differently to the way it is now. We don't have much in the way of records from that time, but according to legends dragons back then grouped together according to skills. There were the Artisans, and their specialist Magic Crafters, who used their mana in ways that puts even my best creations to shame. There were the Dream Weavers; the stories about them are weird ones and nobody actually knows exactly what they did. There were the beast makers, who presumably made beasts, and so on. Many of these dragon factions became unnecessary as time went on, eventually dragon society was re-organised into the elemental structure of today."

"I knew that." Cynder said proudly. "Although I don't think it makes much difference anymore."

"Maybe not, but there are a few important remnants left over from that age. Not least of which are the artefacts created by the artisans, many of which passed into legend and some of which still exist even now after all this time."

Cynder nodded. "Ok. I take it that this has something to do with whoever Warfang is battling against?"

"Of course. The Peacekeepers of ancient times were caught up in a battle with the Old Fire Dragons and eventually lost their homes and their lives. Cliff town, city of the Peacekeepers, has been under Old Fire control ever since. And that's a _very_ long time, believe me, that city has stood since the time the Dark Master was born, and perhaps even longer. The city was renamed Shattershelf. It has been rebuilt into an impenetrable fortress; it has never been taken by an enemy, although many have tried. In fact we have barely been able to get any information about its defences, it's very secure."

Cynder had to admit that was impressive. She knew from personal experience how much cities could get messed up by attacking armies. She'd led a couple of armies while she'd been in her evil form, and then she'd helped to save a city from an army once she was freed and had taken her place as one of the heroes.

"We never proved that the Shattershelf dragons gave aid to The Apes on the night of the dragon temple raid, when your egg was captured by the Dark Master, but the Old Fire Dragons had long held a truce with our enemy. After Malefor was defeated we believe that their city was practically undamaged. The fire dragons started to raid Warfang settlements not long after that, and eventually they started annexing our territory and we had to declare war."

"Right." Cynder said thoughtfully. She'd seen very little evidence of war, although she'd stayed away from other dragons as much as she could, remaining in wild areas. "I honestly didn't notice this was going on."

"You wouldn't have. Dragon wars have very few casualties, and neither Warfang nor the Old Fire dragons have made any significant victories or suffered defeats. Dragons can heal from most non-fatal injuries given time, and our scales and bones are incredibly resistant to damage. Even a massive creature like The Golem could hit a dragon dead on and the dragon would only be hurt. The only times when wars have gotten really bloody in the past have been when the wolven tribes have gotten involved, and it's been almost a hundred years since that happened."

"So Warfang asked for single combat in order to end the war with minimum bloodshed?" Cynder asked.

"No." Imperia laughed slightly. "The Fire king demanded the fight. Ignitus might have been able to stop this war, he was respected as a fire dragon right across the realms. I've probably mentioned who his replacement is, a dragoness named Flare. She's got more than enough skill for the position, I admire her a lot."

Imperia winked as she said the word 'admire'. Cynder remembered hearing about Flare before, just enough to know that Imperia had considerable interest in her.

"The problem is that she's not had time to get a great reputation, and without that her skill is simply a claim that hasn't been proven. She tried to parlay with the fire dragons, but the Fire King called her an upstart pretender and invited her to fight him to the death. Flare agreed, but before the challenge could be formally expected Spyro weighed into the argument. Flare teaches him his fire element and he didn't want her to fall into a trap. He volunteered to fight instead, and the fire dragon emissary agreed to take his acceptance to Magmar instead."

Cynder frowned. "Why?"

"Flare wanted to do the fight, if she'd survived then she'd not only stop the war, but she would have become a much more respected dragon politically, and to her that hope was worth the risk of death. The Old Fire dragons were happy to try to give her a reputation of being a coward, so they leapt at the chance of accepting Spyro fighting as her champion. The Fire King agreed, and thus Spyro and he will be fighting today in the colosseum."

"I see…" Cynder said. "Ok, but who is this Fire King? And what makes him think that he's strong enough to fight Spyro himself, couldn't he also name a champion?"

Imperia laughed without humour. "He would, if he wanted one, but no. His name is Magmar, and he's perhaps the greatest fire dragon of the century, easily the equal of Ignitus. He fought for fifty years in the ice and fire wars, he began as a common soldier and in fifty years he smashed the ice dragons repeatedly in battle after battle, by the end of his war career he'd taken over his entire nation and became the first fire dragon king in at least a thousand years. The only reason his career ended then is because he had no more enemies left to fight, he literally destroyed the power of the ice dragons, along with two of their biggest cities."

"But the ice and fire wars were a hundred years ago." Cynder said.

"Indeed, Magmar is about two hundred years old. Don't think he's lost his edge though; he's one of the most deadly dragons in the world. He's spent the last hundred years reaching mastery of the Earth element as well, making him one of the only dragons alive today who has reached mastery in two elements."

"Spyro has four elements." Cynder pointed out. "But then he _is_ the purple dragon."

"And you're the black dragon; you naturally have four elements as well. But you two are special. For the rest of us it's not so easy. I myself am learning to use ice, but I'm weaker than an academy student with that element."

"So, this dragon Magmar is the one fighting Spyro. You've made him sound like he's quite a dangerous individual, but you also said that you were confident that Spyro will win."

"The Purple Legend against the Bloodfire Dragon, it'll be an epic battle indeed, but I do think that Spyro will win. Never backing down from a fight made Spyro a hero; but never losing, that's what made him a legend."

Cynder raised an eyebrow. "Spyro has lost before."

"Oh don't spoil the story. He has lost before, yes, but whenever it matters he wins and this time it does matter. I have every confidence in him."

* * *

Breakfast was delivered to Imperia's room by a pair of moles. There was breakfast for two. The moles looked at Cynder curiously as they delivered the food.

Imperia thanked them, and the moles politely withdrew.

Cynder looked at Imperia. "Breakfast for two?"

The silver dragoness smiled playfully. "I make that request every now and then, the moles know me well enough to be willing to prepare it if I ask nicely. I was pretty confident that I could convince you to come, so I thought I'd treat you."

"That's both kind and arrogant of you." Cynder observed with a smile.

"Nothing new there." Imperia replied.

Cynder and Imperia sat down for breakfast. They wasted no time in eating, but they also didn't hurry. After breakfast they went out to balcony and looked out at the skyline of Warfang.

Cynder watched the hustle and bustle of the streets; she wondered what they were all doing. It was weird to see a city again.

After several minutes Cynder decided it was time to hurry Imperia up a bit.

"I still want to go and see Spyro before he fights."

"We can't I'm afraid. Flare is the only one allowed to see him before the fight."

Cynder looked at Imperia sceptically. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. It's one of the rules of a formal challenge, although most of the time it isn't used because most of the time dragons don't champion other dragons. Believe me, Flare is the best dragon to be with him right now. She's calm, clever and powerful. She trains Spyro in fighting and in fire magic. He's a prodigy, but even now he still hasn't surpassed her."

Cynder scowled at that., frustrated by being traditionally not allowed to go and see Spyro. "Let's go to the colosseum, then. I'm not enjoying this waiting around."

Imperia nodded. "I'm ready when you are."

* * *

Spyro, the hero of dragonkind and vaunted as the saviour of the world, walked to the centre of the colosseum and sat down quietly. He patiently watched the massive metal gate on the other side of the colosseum sands, waiting for it to open.

Even from her position in the stands Cynder could practically sense power within the purple dragon.

It was in his walk, quick, graceful and powerful, he moved with predatory agility and absolute confidence. It was in the way he stood, his bold stance and calm demeanour.

He had grown more handsome too, Cynder couldn't help but notice. Her eyes ran over his form admiringly, she could see lean muscles and gorgeous proportions; he looked strong, but lightly built, sleek, and overall very attractive.

A sound from behind the gate made Spyro tilt his head, and Cynder felt a sudden disquieting feeling. For just a moment Spyro resembled another purple dragon, the only other purple dragon. With his head tilted to the side Spyro suddenly looked menacing as he sat alone, he looked like the Dark Master, that evil dragon who had tried to, and nearly succeeded in, destroying the world. She and Spyro had defeated that twisted dragon.

Spyro stretched his wings and swished his tail, the moment passed and he looked like himself again. Cynder looked away from him, unsettled by what she'd seen.

She glanced around the stadium instead. The Colosseum was one of the biggest buildings in the city, with stands and a battle arena that were meant for dragons. At the moment the stands were packed with dragons and moles. She spotted a couple of cheetahs and wolves, but the vast majority of the crowd were moles.

The smaller races were packed tight and filled about three quarters of the stands; the dragons took up the rest of the space, and were not so closely spaced, but even they were crowded in.

Most of Warfang had turned up to watch this fight, according to Imperia. Even some of her class at the Warfang Dragon Academy were in the crowd. Everyone had wanted to come and see the purple legend fight, most of them had never seen him in action. Warfang, Cynder decided as she looked around the huge crowd, was a pretty big city.

The arena was almost circular, and the stands were the same. Most of the dragons were on one side of the area, but a much smaller group sat in a tight bunch on the opposite side. Cynder looked at them, soon recognising that most of them were fire dragons, the moles around them had managed to press a few metres away from the group as if afraid to sit too close. Imperia saw Cynder's glance.

"That's them, the delegation from the Old Fire territories."

Cynder considered them. "They're just regular dragons. I sort of expected they'd be a bit more intimidating."

Imperia laughed slightly. "You're right, they're normal enough dragons. It's just the few in power who are at fault. The cause of this war at least has the decency to risk his own life and fight Spyro personally."

At that moment the gate groaned and began to open.

Cynder leaned forwards to get a look at this dragon Magmar.

* * *

The gate opened in a suitably dramatic fashion, heavy chains rattled as it slowly ground open. From the darkness within emerged a monster.

Calling him a monster was no exaggeration. This dragon was even bigger then Terrador was, coloured a rusty red colour with a massive bulky build.

The dragon's footsteps crashed with each movement, he was clad in thick armour of black steel with brutal looking spikes covering his body.

As he walked forwards Magmar's true size was revealed. He was nearly twice Spyro's size, and he was much broader in the body.

Compared to him Spyro looked… heroic. Cynder could think of no better word. She and Spyro had fought bigger things than this dragon, The Golem of the deep earth for example, and they had also faced down the Dark Master himself.

For a moment she was confident that Spyro would win, but then Magmar raised his head and she got to see his face.

He wore armour on his head as well, but his glowing red eyes were visible. Those eyes smouldered with bloodlust, as if this dragon was constantly channelling his elemental power into them. They were the eyes of an experienced and cold hearted killer.

Cynder looked over this dragon calculatingly, and her confidence began to shrink. Magmar was definitely a threat. Not just physically threatening, although he was that. But something told her that this dragon could be unstoppable, the type of dragon who wouldn't even blink at the idea of pain or death.

The hulking figure moved over to stand several metres away from Spyro, both of them looked up at a large hourglass positioned in the stands. Beside the hourglass stood a big earth dragon, Cynder recognised him immediately.

"Are the combatants ready?" The Earth Guardian dragon Terrador asked in his deep rumble. His voice was sombre and cut through the murmur of the crowd instantly.

Spyro nodded silently, Magmar growled.

"Then let the fight begin."

Terrador turned the hourglass and the match started.

* * *

Spyro stood up sharply and turned to face his opponent. Magmar didn't move nearly as quickly as he got up, but he soon began to stalk towards Spyro. The purple dragon backed away lightly, testing Magmar to see what he would do.

The fire dragon did not increase his pace, he just kept coming for Spyro patiently, not wasting any time on threats or posturing.

Spyro changed his mind about retreating and stood his ground, still keeping that easy confidence. But behind his calm appearance his mind was working rapidly, doing exactly what Cynder was doing from her place in the stands.

Cynder didn't see many openings for attack. She could land a poisonous strike through those armour plates, probably, but if this dragon was ready for that then she wouldn't have an easy time getting through. And Spyro needed to end this fight fairly, even if he had have been able to use poison it still likely wouldn't have helped him.

Magmar got close to Spyro and suddenly he surged forwards with his jaws wide, going straight for the purple dragon's throat. Spyro, however, was much faster. He darted under the attack and then surged upwards, slamming his clenched paw straight into the side of the fire king's armoured head.

The concussion of the blow was audible; Cynder sensed the power of the impact with her wind. A strike like that would have felled a troll.

Spyro dove out of the way, just in case there was a counterattack coming, he rolled gracefully and came to his feet looking back at his enemy.

Magmar didn't flinch, didn't even react. He turned again to look at Spyro with a low growl, seeming totally unaffected by the massive impact.

Spyro raised an eyebrow. "That looked like it hurt."

Magmar didn't bother replying, he just started coming for Spyro once again.

"No?" Spyro growled and took an aggressive stance. He stalked a few steps forward and he really was very handsome, the thought once again flashed through Cynder's mind, but Magmar just came ever closer until he was close enough to attack again. The big dragon reared up, spreading his great wings as he aimed to bring his heavy armoured paws down on Spyro to crush him.

Spyro once again rolled gracefully under his attack, going to the opposite side this time, but Magmar had predicted his move and suddenly the fire king was moving much much faster than he had before.

His armoured tail lashed around and Spyro expertly dodged backwards to evade it. Magmar's true speed caught him by surprise and he nearly took the hit full on but Spyro was fast too.

However Magmar had once again predicted him and even as Spyro saw his mistake the fire dragon's paw flashed out to the side and grabbed the lower part of his foreleg.

Instantly Magmar coiled around, yanking Spyro towards him, his jaws going for a killing bite even as his other paw grasped Spyro's leg just below the shoulder.

Spyro twisted out of the way, Magmar's jaws clamped shut on empty air, but the fire king snarled in victory as his paws wrenched Spyro's leg and there was a loud crack.

Cynder nearly leapt into the arena right then, her heat hammering in her chest.

Spyro exploded, a massive fireball centred on his body expanded outwards and blazed through everything around him.

Magmar was hurled off his feet and landed with a grating crash on the ground several metres away. The big dragon roared in anger. He thrashed around furiously as he got to his feet, his spiked tail gouging deep trails in the sand.

Spyro had not fared nearly as well, he was still on his feet, balanced on three legs in the middle of a crater his power had made. His foreleg was twisted at an unnatural angle and he was looking down at it.

Spyro heard Magmar rising again, but didn't look up, he spread his wings and balanced on his hind legs while he grabbed his foreleg with his uninjured paw.

The crowd went silent as Spyro made a sudden jerking movement. Those in the front row, as well as those with sensitive hearing, clearly heard his bones pop back into alignment. A few people gagged at the sound. Spyro gave a sharp howl of pain, then flexed his paw to test it. After several seconds he gingerly put it back on the ground and rested weight on it.

He gave a pained, but brave, smile to the crowd. Cynder wasn't the only one who sighed in relief. His bone had only been dislocated, not broken.

Magmar had found his own problem, some of the metal joints on his back armour were damaged, he arched his back, growling. The metal groaned in protest, but it began to bend under his massive strength. Magmar saw that Spyro had recovered and began to stalk towards him again.

Spyro looked at the rapidly approaching dragon and noticed that the damage done to Magmar's armour was restricting his movements slightly. He bared his teeth and growled in defiance.

"Long range." Cynder whispered to herself, hoping that Spyro was thinking the same thing.

There was no way he could fight Magmar at close quarters, it was suicide to try. Next time Magmar attempted one of those rapid grabs he could get a hold on Spyro's horn or muzzle, and then he'd rip and tear until something broke. The fact was that Spyro was outmatched in terms of strength and melee combat.

Spyro knew this, and so did Magmar.

Spyro went on the offensive, he pressed his paws against the sand and sent a tremor of power through it, Magmar did the same thing and for several seconds there was silence, the entire crowd once again held their breath. Only earth dragons actually knew how it felt to battle another dragon for supremacy of the ground beneath their feet, but most of the crowd had some idea that a furious battle of elemental combat was taking place.

Spyro was growling with effort, while Magmar's expression was unreadable, then finally the bigger dragon took a sudden step back and slammed his paw into the ground. The stalemate was broken and both of their intended attacks went through. Spears of stone erupted around Magmar, but he lashed his tail violently and shattered them before they could reach him. An instant later the ground around Spyro exploded into hundreds of sharp rocks. Spyro howled in pain as dozens of the hard stones jabbed into him, leaving scratches on his scales and forcing him to close his eyes as he was covered in sand.

He sensed that Magmar was charging at him and hurriedly gathered mana again. Through the earth he felt Magmar leap and sensed him descending, he fired a powerful lightning bolt in the direction where he guessed the other dragon was and he was rewarded by a bellow of pain and the feeling of a heavy form crashing to the earth just in front of him.

Spyro instantly seized the advantage, he again pressed his paws against the ground and wrapped Magmar in a crushing vice of sand. He knew he didn't have long, so he pressed as hard as he could on whatever he had gotten hoping that he'd break something. He shook sand off his face and opened his eyes just in time.

Magmar used a Comet Dash.

Cynder had never seen so much raw power from another dragon, not even from Malefor himself, fire ignited with an explosive roar and Magmar erupted out of the ground before bending his attack straight towards Spyro. The moment he was in range Magmar flourished his magic expertly and converted all of his power into one devastating explosion.

Cynder felt a strange buzzing sensation in her belly, and somehow the world slowed around her. Everything became purple and quiet, all movement became delayed. Cynder looked around, for a moment she thought that she alone was at normal speed, however she soon realised that Spyro too was moving normally. He was the one who had activated this power.

This was Dragon Time, the ability to slow down time that had always been unique to purple dragons, and which black dragons apparently had too. Cynder had gone through cruel training to use this ability.

Spyro was moving, he scrambled back from Magmar's explosion and shook himself off. Despite having slowed time Spyro was still looking hurried, he glanced around, deciding if he should run for cover, but then he decided on a course of action.

Time restarted after only a few moments, and Spyro caught Magmar's entire explosion inside a storm of ice.

The fire unmade itself and the two elements compressed down into a tight ball of pure energy. Magic warring against itself furiously. Magmar realised that he was in danger just in time to create a defensive sphere of earth around himself.

Spyro, on the other hand, simply dove backwards, throwing himself to the ground and using earth magic to cover himself in sand.

The sphere exploded with a brilliant flash and a shockwave that caused some of the crowd to lose their balance.

Magmar's earth boulder was blasted backwards with the speed of a cannonball, hitting the wall of the colosseum with enough force to crack the stone. Even with the hard defensive earth that impact hurt immensely.

Magmar's sphere fell to the ground, then burst open. The dragon within was glowing with heat and fury, spitting molten fire as he growled with hatred. He looked insane in that moment.

Magmar took a jerky step forwards, his armour groaned in protest. Between Spyro's crushing sand and the impact with the wall, the back and leg plates of the steel had been bent painfully out of shape.

The furious dragon roared in anger, he reached up and grasped his armour, his claws screeched on the metal until they bit into it and he began to tear. The screeching sound grew harsher as the metal plates began to tear along the damaged joints, eventually something snapped and Magmar tore a large part of his armour off and threw it on the ground. He grasped the plates on his forelegs and ripped those off too. Even then his movement was constricted by the damage done to plates on one of his hind legs. Magmar roared again, his vengeful gaze locking onto Spyro.

Spyro had fared much better this time; he rose, shedding sand, and then his wings flicked open and he growled at Magmar. Before the older dragon could do anything Spyro took a deep breath and exhaled a blizzard.

The arena was obscured by a whirling storm of ice and snow; nobody in the crowd could see what was going on within it. Spyro controlled his magic expertly, and the storm did not rise out of the arena. His skills were extraordinary.

"This is one of his favourite combinations." Imperia whispered to Cynder. "He'll follow up with electricity after this."

Magmar roared in anger, his whole body was glowing with heat, and the ice that came too near to him melted instantly, but water stuck to his armour and sizzled on his scales.

A moment later the entire blizzard lit up with lightning, the brilliant light awed the crowd and made Magmar scream in pain. Cynder was very glad Spyro had controlled his ice well enough that nobody else accidentally got electrocuted.

When the storm cleared the arena was damp as if after rain. Spyro stood tall and proud in the centre of the field, and the crowd began to erupt in cheering.

Only Cynder seemed to realise that Spyro was still in danger.

"Spyro look out!" The distinctive pitch of her shout caught Spyro's attention, he recognised it instantly and he looked around to see where it had come from. However that distracted him from the movement under the sand that was coming for him, and then Magmar erupted out of the ground and his terrible spiked tail caught Spyro full on with a brutal crack.

The fire king was smoking in a way that fire dragons were not normally supposed to, but he wasn't yet beaten.

Cynder threw caution aside, while the rest of the crowd was filled with horrified silence Cynder leapt up, shouting instructions and encouragement to Spyro. Imperia had to physically restrain her, because Cynder was ready to jump into the arena and fight Magmar herself.

Spyro fell to the ground and did not rise, he was still moving, but he'd clearly been injured.

Magmar went instantly for the killing blow, but his murderous instinct was distracted by something. Magmar's eyes swept around the crowd, daring the assembled citizens of Warfang to challenge him. Three quarters of the crowd cringed, and even those who didn't were unsettled by the terrifying stare that Magmar directed at them. Only Cynder was unaffected, her voice rang out alone, shouting at Spyro to get up.

Magmar's eyes locked onto her, and immediately his eyes narrowed with hatred even as his scales blazed with angry fire. There was recognition in his gaze, and it was not of a good kind.

Spyro began to get up, and Magmar deliberately turned his back on Cynder to focus on his primary enemy.

Magmar leant low and said something quietly to Spyro. It might have been a threat, or perhaps an insult, but one thing was sure. Cynder could tell that it had something to do with her.

Spyro responded with a roar, he sprang to his feet and slammed a lightning bolt into Magmar's side.

Magmar howled in pain and instantly counterattacked, but his claws hit a wall of stone. He sent a pulse of magic to break the wall, but Spyro had already fired ice spikes into the fire king's now exposed flank.

The ice didn't stab pierce Magmar's hard scales, even without armour a dragon was nearly indestructible, but they drew blood.

Before Magmar could respond Spyro hit him with another surge of electricity, and followed up by shooting fireballs at his face. Magmar roared, deflecting the fire, only to have the earth under his feet surge and throw him to the ground.

Spyro was no normal dragon, he was a powerful fighter in each of his elements, and he had a vast amount of mana readily accessible. Most other dragons could take decades to achieve a level of energy equal to what Spyro possessed.

His attacks may not have been fully refined or as powerful as those of a dragon with a single element, but his sheer level of versatility and stamina left even a powerful dragon like Magmar hopelessly outmatched.

Magmar fought hard, but from then on the fight belonged to Spyro. The purple dragon did not let up for a moment, and within a minute he had Magmar backed against a wall. He used earth to slam the bigger dragon back, and then finished off with a comet dash to the chest.

Magmar fell, unable to keep fighting. Spyro promptly doused him in a large snowdrift, and then filled that with lightning to make sure that the other dragon wasn't going to get up.

There was a moment of silence from the crowd, as if everyone was stunned that the battle had swung so totally in Spyro's favour after he had come so close to being torn apart. For a moment the stadium didn't seem sure the fight had ended.

Cynder broke free of Imperia and threw herself into the arena, darting towards Spyro and screaming his name in an embarrassingly high pitch.

Spyro took steps towards her, struggling to move due to exhaustion, and the two dragons met in the arena and embraced tightly.

Cynder was aware of nothing beyond the warm, firm and slightly bloodied body of Spyro pressed against her. The whole crowd meant nothing now, Spyro was the only thing that was important. He was holding her, although he was too battered and beaten up to have a grip as strong as hers was.

The crowd stayed quiet. Almost all of Warfang recognised Cynder, but few of them knew if her presence was good or bad.

Cynder would not have recognised one mole in the crowd, but a certain mole recognised her. This particular mole had been one of several that Cynder and Spyro had together saved from a burning building years ago during the siege of Warfang by the dark army.

The mole remembered that day vividly, and the two young dragons most of all. For a few seconds he was unsure how to react to what he saw, but then he stood on his seat and began to cheer loudly for them.

For a moment the mole cheered alone, but then Imperia joined him, and soon the entire crowd was shouting it's approval for the reunited dragons and for Spyro's victory.

Imperia laughed, but her voice wasn't heard in the general din. Things could hardly have worked out better.

* * *

 **I don't know yet if I'll replace the first chapters of my story with these rewritten ones, please let me know your thoughts on what I should do.**

 **-4Dragons**


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